Jurors in Schirmer trial see crime scene photos

Jurors this morning viewed crime scene photos and video depicting blood stains on the garage floor of a parsonage where prosecutors say Arthur Schirmer killed his second wife.

Pocono Record Staff

The trial resumes Thursday in the case of former Jackson Township Methodist church pastor Arthur Schirmer, who’s charged in the 2008 murder of his second wife.

Schirmer is accused of giving his wife a bloody fatal head injury and then making it look like she got that injury in a car crash.

Wednesday’s testimony focused on examination of blood from Betty Jean Schirmer’s head wound in the couple’s vehicle at the crash scene, two other motorists who stopped to help the Schirmers and collection of blood stain samples from the couple’s residence.

Schirmer, former pastor of Reeders United Methodist Church, is charged with homicide in the 2008 death of Betty Schirmer in Monroe County. He has pleaded not guilty.

Schirmer says his wife died in a car crash. Authorities say he hit her on the head with a metal object, then loaded her into the car and staged the crash.

State police trooper Thomas Slavin was on a forensics team that searched the parsonage in December 2008. He took the stand to walk jurors through blood evidence collected on the concrete floor of the one-car garage.

On Tuesday afternoon, a paramedic testified that there was little damage to the car that Arthur Schirmer was driving on the night of the crash, even though Betty Schirmer was seriously injured.